Menu

Category Archives: moths

>The month is ending on a mixed note. We have one day where we get lots of rugs dropped off for cleaning and a few are picked up. The next day lots will get picked up and hardly any will come in. Some day we will have a balanced day, someday. Depending on the Saturday we can have a good mix of drop offs and pick ups, but with the summertime it seems to be one or the other.August was a busier month than July, but September is busier than August.September is busy because vacations are over, the company has gone home, and the summertime running in and out is dwindling down. Area rugs collect a lot of loose dirt, sand and debris over the busy summer months. With the seasons soon changing many people swap their area rugs. They have summer rugs and winter rugs, just like your wardrobe and they get their summer rugs cleaned before storing.Always get your area rugs cleaned before storing!I have written a few blogs about that topic.Moths and other critters have no problem making your rug home for a few months/years. Clean rugs lack the necessary nutrients moths need to survive. Getting your rugs cleaned adds to the health of your homes environment. With the temperatures going lower we are keeping our windows and doors closed more. Removing the dust/dirt/debris from your rug makes the indoor air better.Here’s saying goodbye to a great summer and looking forward to a wonderful autumn.Thanks for reading, RugloverMary

What a week this has been. I have been sick all week and yesterday was the worst day or as I call it look like death day. I had a fuzzy brain and did as little as possible. My thought for yesterday was ‘Bring in a rug, take home a bug (cold bug that is).’ I am grateful that it wasn’t busy. This is an example of how my brain didn’t work yesterday…I had a rug dropped off by our delivery guy and it laid out on the floor for a good twenty minutes with me staring at it. I could not ID the rug. I knew what it wasn’t, but couldn’t remember what it was. It came to me after I got home and I feel really stupid because it is my all time favorite type of wool rug: a Gabbeh!

Yeah! so my brain cells were not working yesterday and after an amazing opening season hockey game between Vancouver Canucks(6) and Calgary Flames(0) and a semi good nights sleep I am feeling and looking much better. It was pretty good to walk into work and have my co-worker, who is a Chicago Blackhawks fan, give me a weak good morning because he knew that my team kicked butt and it put me ahead in our hockey pool, at least for today. Just a side note Detroit, the Stanley Cup Winners, lost to the assumed worst team, Toronto. It is a whole new season, gotta love it!!!!
Now onto today’s topic now that I’ve gotten hockey out-of-the-way.

Last week we had two orders of rugs come in with moth damage/activity one was 10 rugs and the other was 3 rugs. The ten rugs had a lot of empty moth larva casings and with the three rugs two of them had live little larvae.
Yes it got me excited, I cannot identify my favorite rug, but live moth larvae makes me happy. For Luv-A-Rug to clean and do our moth larvae treatment it can quickly add up so I am going to write about how to prevent moths from loving your rugs.

As we all know when moving from place to place you just want things to get done as quickly as possible and sometimes things get put in the out of sight out of mind area.

When it comes to area rugs they should be professionally cleaned and wrapped properly for storage. There is a bit of a debate in the area rug cleaning community as to what is the best way to store area rugs. I will obviously write what Luv-A-Rug suggests and does when it comes to area rug storage.

We like to wrap area rugs in Tyvek, that is what construction workers use to wrap houses in. It is breathable and moisture proof, under normal conditions. Tyvek is combustible at 400 degrees Fahrenheit, so keep away from open flame and all sources of ignition.

Moth balls are recommended as they work as a moth repellent. When storing an area rug after it has been properly cleaned and wrapped it should never go up against an outer wall or lay flat on a cement floor.

These areas can be cold and wet which are not good for your area rugs. The best place to store area rugs is a cool, dry room with low humidity. When unwrapping an area rug that has been stored, it is best to do in a well ventilated area or outside to let the moth ball gas air out. If the moth ball smell lingers bring it into Luv-A-Rug and we can remove it for you.

We all know the saying, ‘An ounce of prevent is worth a pound of cure’ and that is true when it comes to area rug storage. Another tip is to vacuum the entire area rug if it is under furniture. Moths love dry, warm , undisturbed areas and under a sofa or china cabinet is prime real estate. Also look on the under side of the area rug about 6-8 inches in, moths will crawl under the edges and lay their eggs on the bottom of the fibers. The moth larvae eat the wool loops on the back and the moth damage isn’t visible on the front of the rug until it is too late and the moth larvae have eaten a large section of the area rug away. Moth’s are sneaky and it only takes one pregnant moth to cause lots of costly trouble.

Today I got very excited on the inside and a little excited on the outside when I was doing my visual inspection of a British India area rug today. It is spooky how I seem to zoom in on moth casings. Not only was there lots of moth casings there was a live larvae!! It seemed to be newly hatched because it was still clear and very small. I couldn’t find it again to snap a picture of it. It hid back into the rug when I pulled out some fibers. The rug was sadly sent for disposal. A little tiny worm like rug eater got my passion stirring. The pictures show some of the moth-eaten damage and their excrement. If you have an area rug that is under a piece of furniture that you cannot vacuum under, you might want to move the furniture and look for rice shaped objects. They will be the colour of you area rug and there maybe lots of concentrated sand looking dirt. Luv-A-Rug can help you if you find moth evidence on your are rug.
I told the client to go home and inspect their other rugs and woolens for moth activity. If you would like to know more about moths visit our website www.luvarug.com.
Onto an unrelated topic. Yesterday I was waiting for my bus and at the bus stop I saw two purple flowers growing in the grass. They stirred something in me so I took a couple of photos and then tweaked them. As I looked at them I thought ‘beauty in chaos’ since there were no other flowers near by just some weeds and garbage. With it being an anniversary of 911 it seem appropriate to see beauty surrounded by chaos. That is all I want to write today so…….
Thank you for reading, RugloverMary

Another week has disappeared from sight. I thought I had written a blog earlier this week, but no I have not. I have been either too busy or I just didn’t know what to write about. With a topic as broad as area rugs it can be hard to pick something to write about.
Today my co-worker and I discussed a topic and came up with MOTHS! When was the last time you vacuumed under your furniture?
Moths love warm, dry, undisturbed areas and under the sofa or dresser is prime real estate for wool’s #1 enemy. I spent 4 months researching moths and from that I have written a web page you can read at www.luvarug.com The best defenses against moths are getting your woolens cleaned before storing them, vacuuming every nook and cranny to eliminate a food source and proper storage of woolens. Those are just a few you will read about on our website.
This week has been Belgium area rug week. Yesterday alone I took in 6 for cleaning and some for fringe removal. At the beginning on April we had a run on for getting a machine fringe added. I think it was 8 rugs for re-fringing in a 7 day period, pretty good considering in the year I have been here I think we’ve had 7 orders for re-fringing. The cost of re-fringing is a shock to some people and they opt for a binding or surging the ends instead. I wish we had access to more colours. We have 3 colours, white, golden and light grey in 5 different fringe options. Other colours maybe available, but the cost of having them in stock for that one in million chance someone may want red or blue fringes isn’t worth it. Machine wool fringes have gone out of style due to the fact that they don’t last as long as cotton fringes do, although if you have read past blogs you know how I feel about fringes and there is no need to keep repeating myself.
Have a great weekend, here in Victoria we actually get to see the sun and have warmer temps for once.
Thanks for reading, RugloverMary